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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Making Do

Since I cleaned the road from the north end of Merimere Reservoir to West Peak last week, I thought I'd complete the distance and clean the road from the park to the north end, and turn around.

I'd also received a report of two trees which were encroaching into the White Trail. I confirmed this with a mountain bike ride through Hubbard Park on Friday afternoon. From that ride I determined I could take care of these trees with a bow saw rather than schlep my chainsaw for such light work.

The only problem was the rain. Rain was threatening to put a dent in my schedule. Instead of succumbing to the weather, I sucked it up and headed out, which is more than I can say for the person who was supposed to join me on Saturday. Instead of braving the rain, he chose to stay home and organize his belly button lint collection...

The forecast said the rain would stop sometime while I was in Hubbard Park and that was good enough for me.

Shortly after I started on my way, I encountered a case of youthful idealism.

I walked the road all the way to the north end of Merimere Reservoir, picking up trash along both sides. I turned around and walked back to the water treatment plant and left my first bag of trash there.

About that time, the rain stopped.

I opened another bag, turned around, and made my way to the trails, where I encountered the first problem tree.

This is suspicious because there's nothing around to bend the tree.

Ten minutes with a bow saw and the tree was cleared.

About 200 yards further down the White Trail was the second tree.

I had previously dragged this hanging branch aside so this is suspicious to me as well. Nevertheless, with the bow saw in hand, I removed this branch and the bent tree in the background. 15 minutes.

I continued on, over I-691 and back to the park, where I dropped off my second bag of trash.